Handing Planning In!

[Guest]

Hi all

 

I need to know where we stand on handing planning in for the Head to see. I was agast to hear our Head say she thinks she might be asking to see planning next term as she feels that planning has 'gone to pot!' Don't know where to start to look on the Union website.

Wanted a feel on other people's thoughts so I can be armed once staff hear about it. As the Deputy I am in a position to hopefully come up with a better solution!

I had heard that planning is personal to us and might go against the unions but like I say not sure where to look!

Please can I have your help!

Thanks

 

Gem

[JacquieL]

I have always worked in schools where planning was handed in, usually each week, but in one place monthly. As Key Stage Leader I also monitored planning for the Department. At the Children's Centre where I worked we also did the same, and a copy of planning was handed in weekly. I know that they still do this. I have always put a copy of planning on the wall for anyone to see. If your HT isn't used to seeing FS planning you may need to have a session explaining how you do it. Obviously it wont look the same as the rest of the schools, particularly as it is responsive to your observations of the children and next steps, and is very much a working document.

[Guest]

I worked very briefly in a prep school 2- 11 years. The head not only looked at the planning but she scored things out and generally rewrote it, she also expected samples of work to be handed in with the planning. So if you were planning an activity where something is to be created you had to make an example to show her!!!

 

I now manage a nursery and have an interest in the planning and often make contributions or suggestions, I also look after the chidlren so the staff can all meet together to evaluate and plan for the following week. I feel it is important for me to know what is being planned and how/why.

 

But it may be totally different in schools!

[Guest]

I work in a school (nursery unit) and our head expects to see the planning files in on Monday mornings (not just the plan for the week); he also expects to see a copy of the medium-term plan at the beginning of each half-term and the long-term plan at the beginning of the academic year. Each week he signs the plan though he doesn't usually comment.

Why does your head think that the planning has 'gone to pot' if she doesn't see it?

[Susan]

We hand our planning in too, every week, and it gets "marked".

[Froglet]

We don't hand weekly planning in but it is expected that Medium term planning will be on the server by the end of the first week back after each holiday. The head may or may not look at it. It's also meant to be there so subject leaders can easily access it for monitoring purposes if they need to.

 

Weekly planning doesn't have to go on the server but each teacher has a 'planning clipboard' where we keep our planning and it is understood that the head could come and look at it at any time.

 

It is understood that planning is a document for us but we still have an agreed set of 'planning should include...' things which we agreed at a staff meeting about our teaching and learning policy. This has meant that we have a standard planning format but people do 'tweak' it to fit the way they think.

 

I too would be asking what your head thinks is missing if planning has 'gone to pot'.

Edited August 2, 2011 by HelenD26

[JacquieL]

I too would be asking what your head thinks is missing if planning has 'gone to pot'.

 

 

Perhaps her scrutiny of the planning

[Guest]

Hi, we have to hand our medium term planning in by the end of the first week of each half term - by hand in it has to be on the server in school. We don't have to hand weekly planning in. When I spoke to my union (as initially I was being asked for weekly planning and no one was) they said half term planning was fine, but heads could not ask for weekly planning, unless in special measures or you were on capability.

[Guest]

In previous schools our planning had to be on the shared server by 8.30 on a Monday morning and if you were ill you were expected to email it in. Where I currently work all planning is put on the server except for Nursery as I explained that it is written day to day. It is, however kept in a planning folder which anyone can access and a copy is put up for parents to see - although they don't normally look at it. I also type my medium term plan so a copy is available on the server along with the long term plan - although I usually annotate it and change it as I go along.

[Froglet]

Perhaps her scrutiny of the planning

 

 

My planning has been scrutinised lots this year because my head has been doing lots of EY training so looks at my planning to make sure he's up to speed with what I do - he's conscious that things are different to other year groups.

[Alison]

When you think who is the planning for and why is it done, then I don't see grounds to say that the head shouldn't keep an eye on what is happening, after all if it's gone to pot it's the heads overall responsibility to see that things are put right and how is that possible without seeing the planning

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for all your advice. I think it will be how the Head puts it to the staff which will be the crucial part to it all. You have given me some different ideas on how planning is shared and I really appreciate this.

Thanks very much

 

Gem

[Guest]

Our planning gets 'handed in'. I have always worked in a school where this happens. One school it was the key stage leader, the other was the head. My current school it is the head but we said that with the eyfs and planning for the children we may plan a whole week but then things unfold and something else happens so he takes our planning in at the end of the week on the friday with all our jotting/notes etc he thenwhen he sees the following weekhe can see if we have put in our plans anything that has come up, notes we may have made on certain children, interests of children. This seems to work well and we all now give our planning in on a friday because even the other year groups may have to change their planning if something happens or the children do not get a concept etc.

[Guest]

not sure why you think planning is personal to you! it is an integral part of your job and the head/managr should be monitoring regularly to ensure that

a you are observing

b connecting the observation s to next steps and therefore

c planning.

d demonstrating that you are responsive and can adapt the planning to meet individual need

e using parents observations being fed into the planning

 

 

i would also be observing your observation and planning in practice on a reg basis esp if there didnt seem to be any!

[Guest]

Hi I too have always worked in schools where planning was handed in to various degrees. At my current school our medium term planning has to be handed in by the first friday after the start of each term and our weekly planning on monday morning. The whole school has a set format and expectations for what to include in our planning which is reviewed at staff meetings. Our head really does read our plans every week as she makes passing comments about what we are doing later on in the week and sometimes suggestions.

Deb

[Marion]

Guidance on Monitoring Lesson Plans

 

1. Unless employed as newly qualified teachers undertaking induction or serious concerns about the teachers’ performance have already been identified, teachers should not be asked to submit lesson plans to the head teacher, head of department, subject co-ordinator or other line manager on a regular weekly basis. Such practices denote a lack of trust in teachers’ professionalism. The DfES/OFSTED/QCA document says:

 

“It is important to monitor the quality and impact of teachers’ planning. This does not mean that you need to see everyone’s plans each week.”

 

http://lambethnut.org.uk/planning_advice.pdf

 

Planning guidance for primary teachers

[Marion]

not sure why you think planning is personal to you! it is an integral part of your job and the head/managr should be monitoring regularly to ensure that

a you are observing

b connecting the observation s to next steps and therefore

c planning.

d demonstrating that you are responsive and can adapt the planning to meet individual need

e using parents observations being fed into the planning

 

 

i would also be observing your observation and planning in practice on a reg basis esp if there didnt seem to be any!

 

 

Planning is the professional responsibility of all individual teachers, who can use medium-term plans by taking into account the particular needs of their class or groups.

 

Plans should be ‘fit for purpose’. They should be useful to individual teachers and reflect what they need to support their teaching of particular classes. Other teachers should be able to understand the plans.

 

Plans should be kept to a minimum length. They can be set out in the form of bullet points or notes, including how learning objectives will be achieved. This is a matter of professional judgemen[/b]t.

 

Plans are working documents and do not need to be beautifully presented or copied out for others. Separate weekly and daily lesson plans are not necessary. As the OFSTED, DfES and QCA guidance says, for medium-term planning, ‘QCA schemes of work contain the detail you need for each subject’. Annotations or post-it notes can be used to convert medium-term plans into lesson plans.

 

guidance from School Teachers Pay and Conditions

Edited August 13, 2011 by Marion

[Guest]

Thanks Marion and thanks to everyone else. Certainly alot of information for me to work with.

 

Gem

[Guest tinkerbell]

Our medium planning goes on the server in the first week of each half term.

Our daily planning is our own and that too goes on the server in each class folder.

I agree with eggwoman,my weekly planning goes on the server on friday when I have annotated and added all the extras that arise daily working in a reception /year1 classroom.

[catma]

‘QCA schemes of work contain the detail you need for each subject’. Annotations or post-it notes can be used to convert medium-term plans into lesson plans.[/b]

 

However does the EYFS framwork contain that level of detail? iI's a much broader guideline than all the individual QCA units of work which have specific LOs etc defined for you within narrower subject based foci. To make planning fit for EYFS purpose it needs to cover a lot more elements than a KS1 or 2 lesson plan does in a lot of respects - indoor provision, outdoor provision, adult directed, individualised activities etc etc......I don't think I would be able to be as specific as I need to be for all the range of needs and learning opps in an EYFS space with just post it's on a MTP. If planning should flow from the child's needs and interests this could be seen as a contradictory position for EYFS.

 

Cx

Edited August 16, 2011 by catma

[Marion]

If planning should flow from the child's needs and interests this could be seen as a contradictory position for EYFS.

 

Cx

 

I agree

 

Our MT planning is often completed "on the go" as it contains Child Initiated themes and interests which we can not predict in advance. It does contain a separate section for adult focused objectives ( for reception whole class ) and possible activities that will meet those objectives but quite often the children take learning in a different and equally valuable direction so it is always a working document subject to lots of change.

[Guest]

I'm so surprised to hear just how many people have to hand their planning in weekly! I have worked in many schools and never come across this practice. Indeed I have always thought of it as a dreadful thing for a headteacher to do, showing a lack of basic trust in the staff. I appreciate there needs to be monitoring, but weekly on Monday monrning seems to be going too far. At my previous school I would often write only Monday and Tuesday's plan at the weekend, then the rest would be done afterwards (sometimes day to day) based on how that had gone. Planning was monitored but only once every half term.

 

I'm intruiged by the idea of weekly scrutiny. Perhaps someone who hands in planning could tell me what you do if you find things go wrong Monday and the plan needs to be changed? Do you have to rehand it in to the head? Or is this just not accepted practice? Do you have to plough on regardless? Or does the head accept that this will happen and just let you get on with it?

[Guest]

We hand our planning in weekly on a Monday, but the head has agreed that to give us the freedom to allow the children input etc. we hand in planning from the week before and the for that day. Don't know if that would be something your head would be willing to do?

[Guest]

although we hand planning in on a monday it is fully expected that the plans will change over the course of the week and we annotate as we go but the annotated plans don't need to be handed in (except in our recent ofsted when we handed in our annotated planning on each of the 2 days they were there for the inspectors) So far the conversation has been about the head taking in planning in order to monitor it but this is not the only reason that she expects plans in-it is also so supply teachers can pick up our plans if the need arises. Previous to working full time at the school I'm at, I was a supply teacher there and if staff phoned in sick on the day and I was called in, the head was able to give me that days plans when I arrived. We recently had a Y5 teacher who was signed off for almost a whole term and the supply teacher who covered her was able to pick up her medium term plans pretty easily and run with them and because the previous years literacy and numeracy were saved on the server they could be accessed and modified for the present class.

Deb

[Marion]

I'm not sure what the purpose of keeping the original planning has if it doesn't represent what has been taught. It seems to be one of those paper exercise to tick boxes for inspectors rather than having a real purpose. I could understand wanting the annotated copy ...

 

Personally I've never once been asked by OFSTED to see planning (in 6 or 7 visits) ...

and last year's (or any previous year's) planning would be pretty useless as I/we never teach the same thing two years running

[Guest]

It's really interesting sesing how different schools opperate. We have to have all our medium term planning on the school server at the start of each half term. I don't think the Head checks it in detail but she does make sure it's there. As for our weekly plans we used to hand them in at the end of the week, annotated and evaluated, but the Head found it wasn't really beneficial as she got given so much and never had the time to really look through it. So now we put all our weekly plans on the school network, but put hard copies into our own planning file, and it's these copies that we scribble over and evaluate. Then it's there so if someone is off on a course or off sick, anyone could walk into the class, pick up the plans and in theory, teach from them! I also put my weekly plans up so that the parents can see what we're up to each week as so often with our little ones they can never remember what they've done and tell their parents they did 'nothing' or 'played', so it gives the parents something to talk about with their children.

[catma]

It's a very good reason to have planning made available to more than just the teacher - having been the person responsible for arranging supplies and cover this is essential. The children get continuity rather than a disjointed curriculum.

[Froglet]

It's a very good reason to have planning made available to more than just the teacher - having been the person responsible for arranging supplies and cover this is essential. The children get continuity rather than a disjointed curriculum.

 

That's another of the key reasons we hand ours in - MTPs on the server, weekly (with anotations as we go along) kept on a clipboard on our desks. Especially in a small school where everyone teaches a mixed age class and there can be people who really want to help but find it difficult simply because of not knowing the other KS/year group so well.

[Marion]

That's another of the key reasons we hand ours in - MTPs on the server, weekly (with anotations as we go along) kept on a clipboard on our desks. Especially in a small school where everyone teaches a mixed age class and there can be people who really want to help but find it difficult simply because of not knowing the other KS/year group so well.

 

We overcome the problem by having our personal planning files in the classroom

[fay]

I have always had my planning looked at, up until my present head it has been on a weekly basis, Long ago it was a termly plan and a diary recording how each day had gone.

Now all of our plans go on the server, printed copies are kept in the classroom files, or in my case up on the wall, and annotated as necessary. All planning is monitored half termly by the head and senior management team, with comments being fed back individually/at the staff meeting as appropriate.